Three neighborhoods, one gripe about Cincinnati Public Schools: arrogance

It sounds like the start of some Cincinnati inside joke: What do Westwood, Hyde Park and Over-the-Rhine have in common?

But for those involved in battles over school building plans in those three very different neighborhoods, the answer is anything but funny.

Community activists in those neighborhoods are protesting the plans Cincinnati Public Schools officials have developed for their schools.

In Westwood, Cincinnati’s largest neighborhood, the civic association opposed a zoning variance the district needs to put a new gym on the side of Westwood Elementary School that fronts Harrison Avenue. City officials ruled in favor of the association. CPS is appealing. That fight came after neighbors successfully fought to renovate the school instead of razing it to build a new one.

In tony Hyde Park, neighbors near Clark Montessori School have fought the district’s plans to build a four-story high school on Erie Avenue. They argued the plan called for far too dense a school there with a design that would place Dumpsters too close to neighbors’ front doors.

And in Over-the-Rhine, one of the city’s poorest yet most promising neighborhoods, residents are fighting the proposed demolition of a large, rundown building near historic Rothenberg School. The district says it must come down to widen an alley for access. Opponents say CPS is trying to justify paying $182,500 for the building, which Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes’ office valued at less than $120,000 in 2008.

‘Treat us like we’re the opposition’

In each neighborhood, the fight is different. But as the school district works through the final stages of its billion-dollar Facilities Master Plan, activists in the communities have emerged as some of the harshest critics of the way CPS communicates with the communities it serves.

“The common thread is arrogance,” said Mary Kuhl, an activist in Westwood who has been fighting CPS. “They don’t give a rat’s ass about what we think.”

Crystal Faulkner, a CPA who lives near Clark and whose firm is based in Hyde Park, said it took the school district “way too long to engage their neighbors” near the school, although she said officials seem to be listening now. And Michael Morgan, executive director of the Over-the-Rhine Foundation, said district officials only change their plans when forced.

“They modify things when the community is sufficiently outraged and organized,” Morgan said. “It’s ridiculous that they treat us like we’re the opposition.”

CPS insists things coming together

But district officials insist they have engaged the communities for years. The district has reached out to local community councils and has formed community planning teams for all its schools during the facilities planning process, said Janet Walsh, CPS director of public affairs.

As contentious as some discussions have been, Walsh noted that the district and communities are generally coming together to find solutions. (The pending legal action over the zoning in Westwood is an exception.)

“Things never turn out the way I think they’re going to turn out, and I’m the facilities director,” said Michael Burson, who oversees the Facilities Master Plan.

School board President Eileen Cooper Reed said she’s been generally pleased with the staff’s work engaging communities.

“The staff has given us their best shot,” she said. “Sometimes that just doesn’t meld with the political will that exists in the neighborhood. That’s our job to make sure that happens.”

School board member Michael Flannery said the board has asked CPS staff to inform board members of brewing controversies earlier in the process so the board knows the history of each project before voting on how they should proceed.

“I’m here to make sure the kids get what they need,” he said.

The activists say that’s what they want, too. But they also want to make sure the schools fit into the fabric of neighborhoods where they live and work.

“This isn’t just a bunch of crazy West Siders complaining or crazy Over-the-Rhine people,” Kuhl said. “There’s a real internal problem, and I think that’s shameful.”